SPRINGFIELD – With the Columbus Blue Jackets short of defensemen and the Springfield Falcons down to the bare minimum in that department, it will be interesting to see what – if anything – develops before Wednesday’s National Hockey League trade deadline.

Any moves involving the Blue Jackets and/or Falcons would come under the supervision of Columbus general manager Jarmo Kekalainen and his assistant, Chris MacFarland.

MacFarland, who has charge of the Springfield roster, spent last weekend on a scouting trip. He covered games Friday in Hartford, Saturday afternoon in Boston, Saturday night in Springfield and Sunday afternoon in Worcester.

Both the Jackets and their Falcons farm club played with only five defensemen in their most recent games – and both posted 2-1 victories.

In Monday night’s game at Toronto, the Jackets lost prize rookie defenseman Ryan Murray to an injury in the first period, and went the rest of the way with five. Defenseman Jack Johnson logged 31:18 minutes, including 12:18 in the third period.

Murray’s injury is not considered to be serious, but if he can’t go for a game or two, the Jackets could require a replacement.

As for the Falcons, they won at Worcester in a freaky game in which they had only 11 shots – one in the last period. Clearly, their strategy had to be defensive as they played the entire game with five backliners instead of the usual six.

That crisis developed when veteran defenseman Frederic St. Denis had to be scratched just before game time because of an injury.

Springfield’s defensive situation eased somewhat on Tuesday, when St. Denis rejoined the team for a practice session at Cyr Arena. He most likely will be able to play by Friday, when the Falcons begin a three-game weekend with a visit to Hartford.

They’ll play at Adirondack on Saturday and Portland on Sunday while MAAC basketball occupies the MassMutual Center arena.

Tim Erixon, another injured Springfield defenseman, is still listed as “day to day” with the hope that he, too, might be ready by the weekend.

ICE CHIPS: Veteran winger Jack Skille had a goal and assist in Sunday’s victory, running his point streak to five games . . . Jean-Francois Jacques had his fourth game-winning goal this season . . . Falcons captain Ryan Craig now ranks eighth on the franchise scoring list with 128 points in 220 games . . . Craig has 32 power-play goals, tops in Falcons history . . . At 34-17-1-5, the Falcons lead AHL Northeast by seven points. They rank third in the Eastern Conference . . . Carter Camper, who came to the Falcons in a Columbus trade with Boston, finally got game action over the weekend after being held back because of an injury. He had Springfield’s only shootout goal in a 4-3 loss to Providence, his former team . . . “Pink in the Rink” jerseys wore by Falcons players last Saturday are now available by auction on the team’ eBay page. Proceeds go to breast cancer research.